Sa`id `Aql: unplugged

You really have to read this long interview with Sa`id `Aql if you want to understand the malady in Lebanon's political and popular cultures. This man's mental illness has really infected Lebanon's culture. See what kind of greatness he attributes to Lebanon, and see how he cites obscure White Men to "prove" the greatness of Lebanon. And notice that he has never read Mahmud Darwish--his anti-Palestinian racism prevents him from reading anything by Palestinians. And notice that this kook is extremely and deeply sexsit: notice that he wants the woman to be sexless to ear respect and he considers a woman who enages in sex to be "filthy". This is a man who served as a mid-wife for the The Guardians of the Cedar which openly called on each Lebanese to kill a Palestinain at the onset of the civil war (the organization was armed, financed, and sponsored by the Israeli terrorist government, and its founder, Abu Arz, still resides in Israel and receives Israeli support). (Yet, I must concdede: as much I detest and despise this kook, his love poetry is one of the best in Arabic. His volume Qasa'id Min Daftariha, is one of my favorite collection of Arabic love poetry).